403 New Realities---Sweet!

To me, the ardent Christian, Kindly Reader, anyone less than someone I know to be an equally ardent Christian questioner (whether he/she realizes it or not) is requiring answers that are pithy and succinct, effortlessly formatted, and define, in a word, unarguable, rather than evocative of understanding. 

To me, that is a pity because understanding is an experience of unfolding comprehension unique to the Christian walk and a precious gift to give or receive, superior in every way to merely an intellectual remark. 

To me, understanding is joy!

What’s worse, the listener is notably most often without the faintest idea of what constitutes a reasonable answer should I be able to give one. Thus for me to grasp that a simple answer may actually resonate more powerfully with the listener than a more lengthy response is now a sweet new reality. And a sweet-tempered response in a tense situation is actually a sweet victory and most certainly can leave a sweet taste in the mouth of both parties.

To be continued . . . 

402 New Realities contd.

Being a practicing (not perfect) Christian, Gentle Reader; when the average questioner of me (whom, truth be known, almost always seems to have a specific bone to pick with Christianity) wants answers on the spot, I quite often find myself speechless at the gap in Scriptural background between us. Hence, there develops the makings of a tense situation for me as the saying “put someone on the spot” implies. I do so want to offer them something, something, well, something valuable to take away with them and I think most communicators all wish the same.

But thankfully, Christians have the Holy Spirit to prompt and inform each of us; and I have observed that under His influence, quite often less information is actually more—keeping things simple, and, surprisingly, frequently more eloquent and relevant to the listener than I ever realized. This understanding is also a new reality for me; and one that has given me a great deal of relief in dealing with what constitutes the duties of communicating.

To be continued. 

401 New Realities

In closing the subject of comparative reasoning, I must say that looking at similar difficulties in communications experienced by both Christians and politicians, has caused me to embrace several new and meaningful realities. 

One such is that to be a Christian (or politician) and have to always be able to reassure another person instantly, on any subject, is frequently beyond reach.

To be continued . . .

400 Christian Conundrums

Now let’s consider an example of last blog’s conundrums: Christian thinking can include the general difficulties just itemized in Blog 399 and also contain, I might say, case specific difficulties. 

Such a specific difficulty could present like this: a believer may find it is hard enough (for a believer of anything) to always believe, with no ebb or flow in tempo. This difficulty is to me probably the only simple fact about the specific difficulties involved in either theology or social science.  Regardless, most people also judge, scorn and deride this idea (the idea of specific difficulties), know little to nothing about the constants of faith formation, and most often know even less about inherent variables in a belief system, much less general difficulties.

Gentle Reader, in my experience, it is only when and if one digs in and examines anything a little more thoroughly (thus my sort-out) that the subtle becomes obvious.

I hope I have addressed these points well enough for you to get my meaning here. Sometimes it does take a lot of work to distill the essence of any part of a sort-out, I assure you.

To be continued . . .

399 The 2nd Conundrum

So, Gentle Reader, if we compare people's reactions to brain freeze in a politician with their reactions to brain freeze in a Christian, and find one outstanding similarly observable reaction, what is that? It is what I call reflex judgmentalism.  

We can also find that there is what I described in last blog: the first conundrum of complex subject matter—a void of appreciation of the type and degree of difficulty of positing subject matter which contains multiple, subtle variables.

That said, I now am able to come to the second conundrum of complex subject matter: one must be a prestidigitator of great proportions to juggle an endless number of possibilities.

To be continued . . .